1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a submersible craft for the purification of water. Particularly, the submersible craft has a buoyant hollow housing for controlled submersion in a body of water. More particularly, the hollow housing receives a plurality of guide vanes for directing water through the housing and a plurality of filter elements for filtering contaminants out of the water which passes through the hollow housing as the craft navigates through the fluid medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
A wide variety of water purification systems have been utilized to remove contaminants and pollutants from both man-made and natural bodies of water. However, such systems are either typically water skimmers, which can only collect oils having a density less than that of water, residing on the surface of the water, or must remain stationary with respect to a fixed point. Neither type of system is effective for collection, filtering and monitoring of water containing a variety of either known or unknown contaminants.
Water skimmers tend to be only effective at removing oils with densities lower than the density of water; i.e., oils which float on the surface of the water. The water skimmers cannot remove other types of contaminants and pollutants, namely, impurities which reside beneath the surface of the water, and may take the form of high density oils or particulate matter.
Water purification systems which are submersible have been utilized for filtering water below the surface. Such purification systems, however, are typically stationary, both in the area covered and in the depth of the water. As with prior water skimmers, the submersible water purification systems tend to be only effective at removing one type of contaminant found at a single depth in a highly localized area. Further, moving such a system requires external sources of power and locomotion, such as a crane or the construction of a separate propulsion system. Additionally, such systems must be powered by an external power source, which is both energy inefficient, but also inconvenient, given that large sources of power are rarely convenient to bodies of water.
It would be desirable to provide a submersible craft which relies on the natural buoyancy of the materials used in its construction and gravity in order to control depth, thus reducing power consumption. Additionally, it would be further desirable to provide solar panels, which may be utilized for recharging submarine-carried batteries, further reducing power consumption and production of pollutants.
None of the above inventions, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus, a submersible craft for water purification solving the aforementioned problems is desired.